On Wednesday, June 22 @ 8PM ET, CNBC Documentaries presents “ExxonMobil at the Crossroads,” a comprehensive look at one of the most powerful and consequential players in the global energy industry. For more than a hundred years, ExxonMobil’s oil and gas have fueled commutes, moved goods all over the world, and been converted into chemicals that go into everyday products. Fossil fuels have been the foundation of much of our wealth, but they have also precipitated a global climate crisis. This hour-long documentary, reported by CNBC’s David Faber, is based on unprecedented access to company executives and facilities from America’s oil patch to a deep-water production vessel off South America, and investigates the extent of ExxonMobil’s efforts to lower its carbon emissions and get ready for the energy transition.
Faber travels to the oil fields of the Permian Basin in New Mexico, the world’s most productive petroleum region, where he questions ExxonMobil’s executives and managers about the company’s massive new processing plant, built to increase output but reduce environmental impact. CNBC also explores one of ExxonMobil’s highest-profile projects, a planned complex outside Houston, where it says carbon dioxide produced by ExxonMobil and other nearby industries will be collected and sequestered deep underground.
But some experts and observers question whether Exxon’s goals are adequate or feasible. Faber interviews these environmental experts and activists who fear the company is prolonging society’s dependence on fossil fuels and delaying progress of an essential shift towards sustainable, renewable energy.
CNBC also dives into the history of ExxonMobil and explores criticism that the company fostered public uncertainty about climate change. Faber speaks with Congressman Ro Khanna who helped launch high-profile hearings in the fall of 2021 to examine what the big oil companies knew about climate change, and when. Pressure on ExxonMobil to address climate change has also grown from inside, with activist shareholders launching a rebellion in 2021 that led to three new directors being named to ExxonMobil’s 12-member board. Faber profiles CEO Darren Woods, who faces seemingly contradictory pressures to increase production while also decreasing carbon emissions, all while pleasing shareholders.
ExxonMobil is a massive international operation, and to document the scale and implications of that reach, Faber’s reporting takes him to the deep waters off the coast of Guyana, in South America. Guyana is a developing country now sitting on a potential windfall as ExxonMobil begins extracting some of the 11 billion barrels of oil it estimates are in Guyana’s waters. It is also a country that could see parts of its coastline underwater by 2030 as the climate changes. While many in Guyana, including much of its leadership, embrace the potential income from oil, others question whether the country – still more than three quarters covered by pristine forests – should be developing oil at all.
Though oil and gas are the best known of ExxonMobil’s businesses, the documentary also examines the company’s highly profitable chemical business – which earned nearly $8 billion in 2021. Faber goes to an industrial development near Corpus Christi, Texas, home to its newest chemical plant, a joint venture with the Saudi company, SABIC. One of the chemicals produced at the plant goes into making plastics. Faber finds out how oil and gas are connected to plastic production, and challenges ExxonMobil with critics who say it’s contributing to the plastic pollution crisis.
“ExxonMobil at the Crossroads” provides remarkable access and an in-depth look at the company as it attempts to move towards a net zero emissions future, while keeping up with the relentless demand for oil and gas.
For additional information and to view early clips from the documentary, visit: www.cnbc.com/exxonmobilatthecrossroads.
